


Carlos Contemplates Music

by kattahj



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Family, Gen, Homework, Little Brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kattahj/pseuds/kattahj
Summary: Tiny ficlet about how his family's music affects Carlos.
Relationships: Carlos Molina & Julie Molina, Carlos Molina & Julie Molina & Julie Molina's Mother & Ray Molina
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46





	Carlos Contemplates Music

**Author's Note:**

> I have had two different JATP fic ideas bouncing around my head all week, and then ended up writing this instead.  
> A touch here and there is personal experience. (Love you, brother. Did not love trying to do homework while you practiced. *g*)

For as long as Carlos could remember, the house had been constantly filled with music. If it wasn’t Mom playing, it was Julie, and when the two of them were resting their fingers, they put on a playlist, or radio, or CD, or sometimes even a record (mostly Mom).

Most of the time, it had been a great comfort, like being rocked by the heartbeats of their souls.

Then there were the times when he was trying to figure out some incomprehensible math problem from his homework, while Julie was doing the same with her music homework. That was the thing about musicians, they didn’t always play songs all the way through; they were super focused on getting every tiny part right, and there was only so many times he could hear the same passage from “The Rocky Road to Dublin”. Fifty was way too many.

So, yeah. Occasionally, he’d really wished that Mom and Julie would find a different passion. Something quiet, like knitting.

When Mom got sick, she’d still played, but less and less as her strength faded. Julie had practiced less too, even though Mom kept coaxing her: Vale, mi corazón, how about some music? Sometimes Julie had obliged, for a little bit, but her heart wasn’t in it anymore.

And then the house had fallen quiet.

The silence had dragged on for so long, and there seemed to be nothing that he or Dad could say that would break it. It took a miracle, in the shape of three old-timey rocker boys from beyond the grave.

Having the music back was like stepping off the cold tile floor and plunging yourself into a warm bath. Carlos soaked up every moment of every concert, even when he personally would have thrown a bit of Flynn’s rapping in. He did his homework to the sound of repeated chords and rhythms, and it was so much easier than working in dead silence had ever been.

He even abided with those dorks looking up rocker sites on his iPad, and someone being cheeky enough to rearrange his Spotify playlists. (Though the culprit had better watch out if he ever found out who it was!) It was more than worth it, all of it, even the four-hour song-that-never-ends sessions.

But he drew the _line_ at country music.


End file.
